Betrayal
by Faye-The-BookWolf
Summary: <html><head></head>'Chell banged her fists against the glass of the elevator to no avail and held back her tears as the lift touched the earth again. She was SO close…' - A exploration of the betrayal scene in Portal 2 *Spoilers*</html>


**A/N- Just a oneshot to get me back into writing again. :P**

**Summary: A written version of the betrayal scene, and the way Chell felt when Wheatley turned on her. **

"Whoa! Hey! Check me out partner!" Wheatley laughed, rising up out of the platform, his spherical self having been attached to GLaDOS's body. He spun around excitedly, the panels around him responding to his excitement, spinning around as he moved.  
>Chell smiled, keeping her eyes firmly focused on him and trying to avoid looking at the now severed head, or core of GLaDOS from her motionless position on the ground. She had never been more less deadly than at that moment, but still, Chell had felt a sudden jolt of guilt and regret when she heard GLaDOS's agonized screams when the core transfer had begun. She had not expected a computer to have ever made such a noise.<p>

But why should she feel guilt at GLaDOS's pain? This was the robot who had tricked and lied to her, had made her destroy her only friend in the facility, had tried to kill her, had dropped her down an incinerator and had picked at her self-worth by calling her names repeatedly. She should feel no regret at the AI's pain, but nevertheless, she did. Hearing both Wheatley and GLaDOS scream as the procedure began made her wish there was another way. It made her wish she had refused to press the stalemate button. But she did, and it worked, and now, she could finally have her freedom back.  
>She glanced up at the now huge personality core, who was boasting about his sudden intelligence and power and tried to convey to him that she wanted to leave. She opened her mouth, but as per usual, no sound escaped her. Years of disuse had taken their toll after all.<p>

Luckily, Wheatley took this moment to glance at her, hoping she was appreciative of his new form, and seeing her open and close her mouth uselessly, he seemed to understand what it was she wanted.  
>"Oh right, yes of course" he said quickly, glancing at a spot behind the orange clad test subject. "The escape lift, I'll call it now"<br>Chell felt a small sense of relief at his words, a feeling that only grew when she heard a small bell ring, and she turned to see the lift waiting for her.  
>"Lift called" Wheatley crowed, and Chell stepped into it, waiting for it to begin to rise. Good old, reliable Wheatley<p>

When GLaDOS had crushed him after she had been reawaken, Chell had felt the same emotion she had felt when GLaDOS had forced her to incinerate her companion cube. Crushing grief. Angry tears had welled up in her eyes, and she wanted to scream, show some emotion at his death, but she couldn't. But he came back. She still wasn't sure how he did it, but to her, it didn't matter.

Chell glanced up in slight amusement when she heard Wheatley speaking rapid Spanish, but was slightly irritated to find that the lift had not even begun to rise yet.

"I don't even know what I just said, but I can find out!" he glanced at her expression and cleared his throat, embarrassed. "Right, right. The lift. I keep forgetting"

Chell shook her head as the lift began to ascend and her thoughts strayed back to the quick glimpses of Wheatley she had caught when being forced to go through testing by GLaDOS. She thought she was going mad, but hearing him speak had been the turning point. He was alive! And he came back for up. He was willing to risk himself AGAIN to help her. Okay, granted he had woken up a homicidal AI and had almost got the both of them killed in the process, but they had worked through that.

Chell was startled out of her triumphant thoughts when she heard a slight maniacal laugh emanate from Wheatley's direction, and she looked at him in slight concern. That was…worrying. His laugh eventually trailed off to tired chuckles, and he glanced over at her, and she did not particularly like the look in his eye.

"Actually" he said quietly, and Chell's heart jumped in her throat as she felt the lift begin to descend. "Why don't we stay here for a while?"

No. Nononono!

This could NOT be happening.

Chell banged her fists against the glass of the elevator to no avail and held back her tears as the lift touched the earth again. She was SO close…

"Do you have ANY idea how good this feels?" Wheatley demanded, turning around in his new body. "I did this. Tiny little Wheatley did this!"

"You didn't do anything" a familiar female robotic voice whispered, and through her panic and hurt, Chell recognized it as GLaDOS's voice. "She did all the work"

Chell flinched. That wasn't true. She wouldn't have been able to escape without Wheatley. She wouldn't have found her way to the turret production or to the neurotoxin. But that made the betrayal all the more worse, because they were supposed to have been FRIENDS.

"Oh really?" Wheatley demanded, his eye narrowing. "Is that what the two of you think?"

'No!' Chell wanted to scream. 'It's not!'

"Well maybe it's time I DID something then!"

Chell's eyes widened as a robotic arm extended from the pit below Wheatley and began to drag GLaDOS into it.

"What are you doing? No! No!" she cried, before the cover closed over her. Chell struggled to pull open the elevator doors in desperation. What WAS he doing? This was too far!

"And don't think I'm not onto you too lady" Wheatley growled, glaring at her in a way that made Chell freeze. "You know what you are? SELFISH"

Her mouth fell open in shock at those words, and she shook her head in disbelief. Selfish? How dare he-

"I've done nothing but sacrifice to get us here" Wheatley continued to rant. "And what have you sacrificed? NOTHING"

Chell pressed her back against the rear end of the elevator and shook her head slowly. Sacrifice? What exactly had he sacrificed that she hadn't?

"All you've done, is BOSS me around!"

'Boss him around?' Chell thought in slight exasperation. 'I can't even speak! That's ridiculous!'

"Well who's the boss now? It's Me!"

Wheatley moved forward to glare at her again, but his expression seemed to brighten upon hearing a small bell ring. "Ah!" he stated, sounding pleased. A robotic arm once again extended out of the platform, holding one of the potato batteries they had seen earlier.

"This" Wheatley began, holding the battery closer to the elevator. "Is a potato battery. It's a toy, for children, and now, she lives in it"

Chell stared at the potato, her mouth slightly agape as Wheatley let out a triumphant laugh. In any other situation, she probably would have laughed too, but this was seriously wrong. She had once, long ago heard the phrase 'Power corrupts' and felt that it was well suited here.

"I know you" GLaDOS stated from inside the potato, her voice low and furious. Chell could see her eye glaring out of the power locator of the battery, and frowned, looking back up at Wheatley.

"Sorry, what?" Wheatley asked, glaring at the potato.

"The engineers tried everything to make me…behave. Once, they even attached an intelligence dampening sphere onto me. It clung onto my brain like a tumour, creating an endless stream of terrible ideas." GLaDOS paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts, or perhaps merely for dramatic effect. "It was YOUR voice"

Chell's mouth fell open slightly. She had thought Wheatley looked like one of GLaDOS's personality spheres, but she never imagined he was created to make her stupid.

"No, I'm not listening" Wheatley protested, looking away from the two of them.

"Yes" GLaDOS insisted. "You're the tumour. You're not just a regular moron. You were DESIGNED to be a moron!"

Something seemed to snap in Wheatley at these words, and Chell gasped as the robotic arm smashed into the elevator in a rage, cracking the glass slightly.

"I AM NOT A MORON!" Wheatley bellowed in fury.

"Yes you are" GLaDOS cried, her own anger evident. "You're the moron they built to make me an idiot!"

'Don't wind him up!' Chell wanted to scream. 'Don't make him any worse!'

She covered her head with one arm as Wheatley smashed his robotic arm through the glass, dropping GLaDOS into the elevator with her.

"COULD A MORON DO THIS?" Wheatley demanded, slamming the arm onto the top of the elevator so it sunk slightly, and Chell grabbed onto the rail, her heart hammering. "COULD A MORON PUNCH. YOU. INTO. THIS. PIT?" Wheatley bellowed, and with each word, punched the top of the elevator, sending it further and further into to elevator shaft. Chell struggled to keep herself standing as the elevator wobbled and shook as Wheatley bellowed "COULD A MORON DO THAT?"

Chell tried to quell her beating heart as silence reigned for a few moments, and ran her tongue over her dry lips to provide some moisture. She glanced down at GLaDOS's form, who was surprisingly silent and not scathing.

She flinched suddenly as she heard an ominous creak from below her, and knew what was going to happen before it did.

"Uh oh" Wheatley gasped from above her, and for one wonderful moment, he sounded like her Wheatley again. But too soon, she was tore away from that reassuring thought as the world opened up, and swallowed her whole.


End file.
